2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Racism is a tool of the wealthy used to keep poor people from uniting. [View all]BainsBane
(53,012 posts)are intended to silence people of color. Privileging a single politician's political fortunes above a social movement protesting the hundreds, if not thousands, of people of color being killed by police reveals an inegalitarian notion of society n which the desires of a few white people trump the lives of people of color. I no longer and going to try to convince people to listen to the concerns of people of color. It has become clear to me that the exclusionary position is not incidental but rather central to a certain political ethos. We are witnessing a movement by the white upper-middle class and middle class, predominately male, to reestablish their own privilege, while working to silence and discredit the subaltern. It is not leftist, liberal, or progressive. It is reactionary. It is sad that has what has become of a presidential campaign that might have offered voters a true leftist alternative, but his supporters are far to wedded to their own entitlement and thus express open hostility to anyone who stands in the way of reclaiming their position atop the capitalist world order. I once thought Bernie deserved better than what is being perpetrated in his name. I no longer am so sure, simply because he has not clamped down on his supporters efforts to drive off any potential support from people of color.
Also note that the poor by and large do not support Sanders. His supporters are whiter and more affluent than the population at large, even if they fret about how exploitive an internship's wage of $60k a year is or hard it is to get by on $150k, a household income greater than 90% of the country. Claims that discrediting black activists helps the poor is patently false. There is only one group being promoted here, and they as in aggregate (though not to the person) are far from poor.
We do indeed have people preying on racial division for political gain, but it is not Black Lives Matter. People of color cannot maintain racism or divide to promote the interests of a few. Such an ethos exists ONLY to maintain white supremacy. Even if people are not aware of it, that is precisely what they are engaged in when they work to delegimate social activism in defense of black lives.
This entire ethos belongs to the 19th century. It deserves to be defeated, and it will be. It is sad they have chosen to saddle Bernie with this association because in doing so they have doomed his candidacy. Americans who seek an egalitarian society do not tell black activists to keep their mouths shut because they fear a political hero can't take criticism. That very argument is as profoundly anti-egalitarian and reactionary as any that exists in this country.